2013 Finally!

    So it looks like we survived two more world apocalypses, three college graduations, a wedding, a move across the country (i.e. a cross country car trip with six cats, two birds and two goldfish), a new house with my dream barn and horses again! Basically a whole new life.

    I would like to say things are settling down but really they are only beginning with our first child on the way things are going to get much much busier. Although this does mean that I have to take things easier and a little slower so now I have an even bigger excuse to try to play with my Copics more! Yay! So far I have started off this year with a heavy session of cleaning, refilling, reorganizing and reordering all of my Copics.

 Oh did I mention the start of this too?

More soon!

-Beth    

Applejack at Ikkicon

     Alrighty so I returned to Ikkicon again this year and showed up mainly as Applejack but also did run about as Misato again one day too. Ikkicon had a much better location this year in some aspects other parts not so much. It seems that the artist alley was literally crammed in and you were lucky if you found the exit in the dealer’s room. Scheduling was also a bit of a nightmare it seemed that there was not enough staff and the volunteers seemed just as lost as the attendees. However myself Tony and Serena did have a blast.

     There are plenty more Misato photos up over at Cosplay.com and I was also able to get to meet up with Greg Ayres and sit in on a great panel of his and get some insider information on what is going on with the Anime industry. If you have the chance to meet him and sit in on his panel defiantly do it you won’t be disappointed! (Still working on photos.)

     Serena and I did a pony cosplay double. Serena went as the infamous Art Rarity and I returned as Applejack. Check out lots more mane photos! There were tons of ponys on site and the two of us were photographed by several ponys and bronys alike. My Apple Jack costume is now up on Cosplay.com go check it out.
Speaking of ponys I drew this Grad Rarity for part of Serena’s graduation gift check at that silky smooth mane! I am adding this into iCopic’s weekly challenge #63

Otherwise I am out and about busy with projects still. Take care!



-Beth

Greetings 2012!

     2011 sure was a pretty busy year and I am expecting 2012 to be even busier. Lots more updates and work to be done, expect much more to be shared soon! So glad that the holidays have come and gone now I can enjoy my life again! ;) I now have completed three more large murals similar to The Aspects of Myself, photos of those soon.


The Aspects of Myself by ~BethMcBeth on deviantART

And much, much more! Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Here's a quick walk through of two of my large Copic Murals. Taken with iPhone so expect shaky and poor video quality. ;P



-Beth

House Finches’ nest

    Alrighty finials are midway through and I managed to steal sometime for myself while I still could. So I noticed Scrapmaster’s color combo:

And thought back to my Fibers nest project which is complete! Yay! Pictures of that soon after grades, and thought that these colors reminded more of bird’s nests and eggs so I set out to draw and color a House Finches’ nest. These little birds also visit my feeders and have been actively feeding since it got slightly cooler.

So I started with a light sketch and then outlined with Copic SP multiliners.

The eggs and leaves are with SP 0.5 and the branches are SP 0.7

Eggs: Color in with BG02 (substitute for BG01), B52 and B00 for the base of the eggs. Thickly coat with 0 afterwards.

Add the spots in by stippling in E29, E18 then E15. Then bloat 0 on top of the brown spots.

The nest is E29, E99, YR24 and W3.

Branches: E29, E18, E33, and Y28.

The leaves: E29, E23, YG03, YG97, 0 and then go over it again with YG03.

Then I used Copic Opaque and added the highlights in.

 

Next I masked it with X-Press IT High Tack Double Sided tape.

The background is airbrushed copics B00, BG02 and B18.

And then again with B00 and BG02 to even out the gradation.

Then I peeled off the tape and colored back in with B00, and BG02 to fill in any gaps and to add the lines back into the background. And there’s the nest!

 

 I also decided to enter iCopic’s Black Hair challenge  and the PagieeDraw contest as well. Below is an image from PagieeDraw and I colored it in. Had some fun trying out using light colors first on the black hair and then going dark. I tend to work dark to light so I had fun with it.

Back to the books to study, I spent the other part of yesterday making over 100 flashcards, take care!

-Beth

Vintage Deer

     This weekend has been pretty busy with so many projects and the continuation of the giant murals. So far three out of four are complete with lots of photographs to come soon after tomorrow’s critique. In the meantime I managed to create a little deer card it hopes of success for my finial. It also happens to work out great for iCopic’s weekly challenge Vintage #58.

     To make this little deer get a sheet of water color paper and layer down lightly some base colors. I chose light yellows, orange, and a dark red that I water downed. Blotch the watercolors all over the card and then pour sea salt directly into the still wet water color. I then let this dry over night as my paper was super saturated. Brush off any excess salt.

     Next I squirted a little bit of lemon juice onto the card and baked it in the oven at 350°F for about five minutes.

Next I pulled it out to cool and then lightly sketched with a pencil the little deer. I used a 7B pencil to give a thick sketchy line.

Next I colored in the darkest body parts of the deer with Copics E35, Y28, and E79. Making sure to blend into the pencil to continue the vintage effect.

The lighter parts of the deer are E43, W1 and C8 to outline all of the pencil.

The eye is C8 and E43 and the ears, nose and mouth are RV95 and R32.

Finally I added some Opaque White for the highlight in the eye and the spots.

Once that was I dry I went back into the spots with a little bit of C8.

And the finial vintage touches lightly burn the edges. Remember to always be careful when cooking and burning paper. ;)

I am hoping this will encourage me to complete my massive Copic Elk piece for tomorrow’s critique.

-Beth

End of the semester so soon

    
     Yes it is so soon that I can almost taste it. And just about every last minute disaster that could possibly happen. It seems that once again almost every class has their project/finial/end of the semester goal all due on exactly the same day. So it is going to be another intense art week. Nothing I really can’t handle. So first off some of the fun things.

I wandered over to The Scrapmaster Paradise  and noticed that they run a color combo challenge. What better way to put my past color theory classes to use right? And to make it even better its Copic colors! Mwhahaaa! So I drew up this little Triceratops looking up at some mistletoe for challenge #128.

 

Hand drawn and outline in copic liners, I used the basic colors required BG05, R29 and substituted YG11 for YG13 as my YG13 is currently out. Refill wish listed already! ;)

The entire triceratops is made up of BG05, YG03 and YG11, along with copic opaque, and E79 and 100 for the eye.

The mistletoe is also BG05, YG03, YG11, R29 and opaque.

The ribbon for the mistletoe is R29, R39, YR09, YR68 and opaque.

The background is divided into three bars. The top blue bar is multiliner SP, B24, BG05 and B52 with YG11 flicking into the yellow band.

The yellow band is FYG1, and Y35 this makes the little dinosaur pop out.

The bottom brown band is E35 and E79 with multiliners .035

    

     Onto other Copic school related items... The start of yet another fibers project is below, underneath the pile of cats. From left to right; the long grey hair is Dahlia, orange tabby is Haru, the bigger grey tabby in front is Norman and behind him the other grey tabby is Muta. All atop a giant cushion buried beneath is various fabrics cut, dyed, and woven. More on this project soon as it slowly becomes woven together.

Nadia front and Nightmare behind, on the other hand tend to steal my copics instead.

And yes once again back to the giant in progress murals. These measure out at about 5 ½ X 18 ft. and take a lot of Copic and paint.

But slowly it too is coming together. And soon enough much better photos as well. Off to tackle more of this mural!

-Beth



ATC Dump

Alrighty it’s been a while since I really threw up some non-academic work. I got into the ATCs, Artist Trading Cards. And thought it was time to share a few of them from the past few months. I really enjoy the idea of trading back and forth the cards too. I also enjoy the small time I get to do a little intimate piece of art as well.

Some Copic pieces: sketch, multiliners, atyouspica.

These three above are watercolor pencil.

More Copic pieces and a brief view of the workspace I live in from time to time.

 

Copic multiliners

This Tasty Turkey is also being shared in the iCopic weekly challenge # 57

Just been a super busy week so far and with the holiday crazy its only getting scarier.

-Beth

Art Blur

     This week has defiantly been an art blur for me. Lots of projects due and completed. Here’s a very quick overview of this week. The fibers project was a huge success! It is an up cycled shawl created from reused t-shirts from mine and my husband’s collection. Better photos to come soon.

It is a warm and truly functional piece.

     Had a major thesis critique as well, going back towards more huge yes HUGE Copic and mixed media pieces. Here’s a quick run through of the works on display in the hallway at Texas State.

Lots more work to be done.

      I was also fortunate enough to steal away enough time to browse through the EAST Austin Studio Art Tour. Managed to see some of my professors and friends work up on dispaly and many other great pieces as well! This is always such a treat! And it’s a lot of fun to get to go inside and explore other artists’ studios. Sort of like an invited home invasion. ;)

Managed to find this wood working artist, BDJ Craftworks. And fell in love with his custom vases all made of wood they are so smooth and elegant so Tony and I picked up two of them.

Then I added my own accents to them

     With my thoughts going out the Students of UC Davis this piece came to mind for me. I think what hurts even more is that it has taken so long for the “actual news” to not only try to cover the story but to even bring it up at all. More power to students with technology and Facebook.

    
     Not only does it cover exactly how I feel about this situation and numerous other situations currently playing out it is also 100% Copic. Including the background which is straight up Copic various inks. I also shared this work in iCopic's challange here.

I will also feel this way as I continue with my studies for an upcoming exam. I wonder where the world is going and where it will take me.


-Beth

Thankful

     Being so busy with school and slammed with projects, I managed to steal away some of my own time for myself and my Copics. Yes and for something non-school related! Yay! I started thinking more about my husband and how much he means to me. Yes this blog has gotten slightly mushy.

     Despite our arguments and disagreements he is always there for me. He has driven me to school numerous times, carried my sewing machine across campus when I bound to crutches. Allows my cats to run wild all over the house and constantly supports me throughout all of my crazy art projects. Trust me there have been lots of crazy projects... And for that I am truly thankful for.

       So I managed to steal a couple quick photos and jumped right in with planes of colors for this very quick sketch here. Copic sketches, wides and a linear.

So that was about it for the fun non-school work otherwise I am neck deep in another fibers project and the never ending thesis that I really need to post photos up as well.

 

Take care and start to prepare for the holiday madness...

-Beth

More uploads and add-on’s.

     Working here and there on more projects and trying to get through what’s left of the semester. Defiantly getting down towards crunch time again. Despite that I did manage to catch up a little and color for well another school project, however this one might get to be slightly more or less better up my alley and if I get to incorporate Copics into it that’s just about icing on the cake there.

     Here are some concept ideas below and yes, *Gasp* could these be potential paper craft….?

Mwhaaa…

Let’s see what tomorrow brings...

-Beth